Graduate Student Award

2014-2015 Award Nominees & Award Recepients

2014 - 2015 Award Submission Guidelines

The Office of the Provost confers a university-wide Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching at the annual spring Celebration of Teaching Excellence. Four $500 awards are presented each year: two to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts, one to the Bayer School for Natural and Environmental Sciences, and one to the Mylan School of Pharmacy.

The purpose of the award is to promote and reward teaching effectiveness by current graduate students and to provide award nominees with training on how to present evidence of teaching excellence.

Selection Criteria

Award dossiers need to provide evidence of the following:

Mastery of basics of teaching (preparation, clear communication of course content, effective use of time, engagement of students in learning, approachability and availability to students, feedback on learning, and fairness in grading)

Professional interactions with faculty and graduate student colleagues about teaching

Ability to reflect on teaching and apply what they learn from feedback

Eligibility

Each nominee must:

Be a graduate student at Duquesne University at the time of nomination.

Have taught at Duquesne University within a year of the award nomination

Have served as a teaching assistant (TA) for at least two courses at Duquesne University (this might include intensive or summer courses). Teaching is broadly defined to include traditional independent teaching of a class, online teaching, lab instruction, recitation leadership, and teaching done in pairs.

Participate in a Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) training program on presenting evidence of excellence in teaching and submit the resulting teaching portfolio by Monday, February 2, 2015.

A graduate student who is nominated, but does not win, is eligible to be nominated again in subsequent years.

Award Process

The award process was established through careful deliberation of the Provost, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and representative deans, faculty and TAs. Our goals are to establish an award that has value and recognizes quality teaching, to provide training to TAs on how to submit a teaching award dossier, and to be equitable and open in our award process.

Nomination-- Each department chair is responsible for seeing that appropriate nominations are submitted by 4:00 pm on Friday, October 10, 2014 to the Center for Teaching Excellence, which is located at 20 Chatham Square. He or she may ask the TA’s faculty teaching supervisor to write the nomination.

The Nomination Form is to be completed by the chair or a faculty mentor from the TA's own academic department, and must be signed by the chair and dean. No other form or means will be considered an official nomination.

The number of official nominations is to be determined by each school. The university-wide award guidelines do not limit these, but clearly, nominees must meet the three selection criteria outlined above. All official nominees who complete the training process and submit an award dossier will receive recognition. Four people will receive the award.

Preparation of the Dossier--Upon receipt of the nomination letter from the department, the TA Award Committee will invite the nominee to consult with CTE in order to prepare a dossier which presents the nominee’s teaching experience. Nominees will include a copy of the official nomination letter in their dossier.

Evaluation of Dossiers--The TA Award Committee will evaluate all dossiers and choose the winners. Winners will be announced by March 2015.

Certificate--All TAs who are officially nominated and who complete and submit a dossier by February 2, 2015 will receive a certificate, a book on college teaching, and a letter describing the process in which they participated. They will be recognized at the Celebration of Teaching Excellence.

Award Ceremony--The four winners will receive $500, a certificate, a book on college teaching, and a letter from Provost Timothy Austin. The awards will be conferred at the Celebration of Teaching Excellence in the Spring.

Faculty mentor teaching observation within a year of the award nomination from a Duquesne faculty member other than the one making the nomination. Nominee must be observed while teaching a class at Duquesne University.